Many varied types of communication systems provide for the communication of textual data. Mail messaging, for instance, provides for the communication of textual data to one or more recipients. Many computer, and other digital-based, communication networks sometimes provide for mail messaging. Many communication sessions involve, or consist of, exchange of mail messages between communication devices that are connected to a communication network. The parties to a mail messaging communication session need not concurrently communicate. Rather, by way of, e.g., a store-and-forward scheme, the sending party sends a mail message to a recipient, and the recipient party retrieves the communicated message when convenient. And, the recipient of the communicated message replies to the sent message, for subsequent retrieval by the recipient of the responsive message.
While mail messaging was first carried out between computer stations fixedly connected to wired, local area networks, mail messaging was soon permitted between devices connected to the Internet, or other wide area network. And, more recently, mobile communication devices, such as mobile stations operable in cellular radio communication systems, have been developed that are also capable of sending and receiving mail messages, together with attachments. Communication of textual data with, and between, mobile stations is advantageous for the same reasons for which mail messaging is popularly utilized using computer stations, and the like, that are fixedly connected to a communication network. The user of a mobile communication device retrieves a transmitted message at convenience, and responds thereto, also at convenience.
A conventional mail message is typically formatted to identify to whom to send the message and also a message body. Addressing information is sometimes formed of one or more distribution lists, e.g., a “to:” and a “cc:” list. Each list sometimes includes a significant number of entries. A single message is, as a result, communicated by a single sending station to a plurality of recipient stations. And, a recipient of the message is typically capable of correspondingly communicating a reply to a plurality of communication devices.
While the parties to whom a reply message is sent is generally selectable by the respondent to a received message, the respondent sometimes elects merely to reply to all of the parties to whom the received message was sent. Some mail messaging schemes provide for a “reply to all” configuration in which, as a default, a reply message generated by a recipient is sent to all addresses to which the received message had been sent. That is to say, if the received message includes a “to:” distribution list, the reply message is sent, by default, to all addresses contained in the “to:” distribution list. And, if the received message includes a “cc:” distribution list, the reply message generated by the respondent is sent to all of the entries on the “cc:” distribution list.
A user generating the reply, the respondent, might sometimes not carefully review the entries on the distribution lists to which the reply message is to be sent. And, the respondent might inadvertently send a reply message to a party to whom the respondent might not want the reply message to be sent. For instance, if a mail message is delivered to a party within a business, or other, organization, and the distribution list includes entries that are external to the organization, a reply message generated by the recipient, if sent to all of the parties on the distribution list, is sent to addresses that are external to the organization. If the respondent party fails to notice that a distribution entry is associated with an external address, the respondent might inadvertently send a message, such as a message containing proprietary information, to the external party, inadvertently thereby providing the external party with proprietary information.
As, increasingly, the communication devices between which mail messages are communicated comprise mobile devices, having small user display screens, distribution list entries are more likely not to be noticed. And, in some communication devices, the entries on the distribution lists are not automatically displayed for perusal by a user.
An improved manner by which to alert a user of a communication device, such as a mobile station, that is used pursuant to mail messaging of the distribution list entries, would therefore be advantageous.
It is in light of this background information relating to mail messaging systems that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.